A thermodynamic analysis of combined coal gasification and methane reforming for synthesis gas production

A detailed thermodynamic analysis of the combined coal gasification and coal-bed methane reforming under conditions prevailing those in fluidised-beds has been performed using the Gibbs free energy minimization method. By keeping the adiabatic temperature of the reaction system to 1273K, coal gasification alone is compared with the combined coal gasification and methane reforming in terms of cold gas efficiency, oxygen consumption and product gas H₂/CO ratio. The results show that increasing methane feed in the gasification system can improve the cold gas efficiency and reduce the oxygen consumption. The H₂/CO ratio of the synthesis gas produced is adjustable. Methane is shown to play in part the role of steam and thus reduce the water consumption in the combined process. The findings of the present analysis testify the advantage of combined coal gasification and coal-bed methane reforming process as an alternative means of coal-bed methane utilisation and provide useful guidelines for potential practical applications.